Fast real-time three-dimensional wind estimation for fixed-wing aircraft

This paper proposes a fast real-time estimation algorithm which is inspired by the philosophy of the generalized model predictive static programming and solves the three-dimensional wind estimation problem in an optimal control manner. The wind estimation problem is transformed into a static optimization problem featuring a highly efficient solving framework. The proposed algorithm estimates the three-dimensional wind components without considering any hypothesis on the structure of the wind, and without relying on airspeed measurements either. The measurement noise and the model uncertainties are applied. Simulations demonstrate the rapidity and accuracy of the proposed method.